The Bridge No 2

Paul Richard Landauer is an Austrian abstract artist. His paintings are the result of pictorial gestures that create marks, touches, and graphic traces on the canvas. His artistic practice ponders the rhythm and uniqueness of forms. Born in Vienna (Austria), Landauer currently lives and works in Belgrade (Serbia).

Education

Landauer was born in Vienna in 1974. He approached the study of art history, psychology, and communication to fully delve into visual culture. His eclectic temperament led him to explore different creative fields, from painting to movie directing and photography, working as a creative director and consultant for brand communication. Landauer's interdisciplinary experience turns him into a sort of modern Renaissance polymath. 

Technique

Landauer uses a highly personal style of painting, often characterized by the methodical and orderly juxtaposition of intense touches. His paintings are created through simple acts, such as repeatedly applying brushstrokes of colour to the canvas. Each touch is intentionally counted, measured, reported, creating deeply harmonious and musical compositions.

The painter masterfully uses different techniques. He creates abstract paintings with traditional media, such as oil or acrylic on canvas, but also more experimental artworks that include external textural elements, such as essential jute fabric or precious golden leaf. The result is a rich and complex surface, often realized in large formats and with impressive vertical orientation. Despite his controlled approach and methodical process, Landauer's paintings are full of freedom.

Inspiration 

The art practice of Landauer fits into the tradition of Informal Art and Abstract Expressionism deepening its more intimate and pure aspects. The inspiration for his paintings comes from his existence and his own body, acts, and movements. Landauer measures through his touches the fingerprints of his hands, he focuses on the pictorial rendering of his biometric data. Ironically, the compositions he obtains are only apparently serial and modular: every touch, like every existence, is mutable and different. In an era of continuous mechanical reproduction, Landauer is inspired by the singularity and uniqueness of each gesture.

Artist Statement

“My artistic work is a process of silencing the noise – a noise surrounding all of us, screaming constantly from displays and screens. It’s a constant distraction from our individual desires […]. My art is the endeavour to expose the purity, the genuine, subjective essence laying beneath this thick layer of distraction. But these artworks are no conclusion or comment. They are the result of a journey through visual detoxification, excavation, and condensation, which eventually exposes something free and pure.”  From Silence the Noise Exhibition Catalog, N.EON Gallery (Belgrade)

Collections/Exhibitions/Galleries

Paul Landauer exhibited in several solo shows and group exhibitions in European galleries and museums. His work has been featured in 2020 in the solo show Excavation of innocence at the National Museum of Smederevska Palanka (Smed Palanka, Serbia) and in 2019 in Silence the noise at N.EON Gallery (Belgrade, Serbia). He also participated in group shows in Gallery O3ONE (Belgrade, Serbia), Galerija Stab / X-Vitamin gallery (Belgrade, Serbia), and Van Gogh Gallery (Madrid, Spain).